Iraanse politieke partij vecht plaatsing op EU-terreurlijst aan (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Iran opposition group PMOI is suing the EU for €1 million in damages and to clear its name of being stuck on Brussels' terrorist register, with the EU's attitude to the People's Mujahidin Organisation of Iran also causing a stink in the Danish parliament.

Lawyers for the PMOI on Wednesday (9 May) filed the law suit at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, saying the EU is breaking its own laws by not following a verdict by the Court of First Instance last December, which annulled the EU's earlier decision to list the group.

Any officially-designated "terrorist" organisations have their financial assets frozen and are forbidden from fundraising in Europe, with a PMOI spokesman telling EUobserver "the true [loss] is much higher...the PMOI has suffered serious financial and moral damage."

EU experts are using legal technicalities to argue they are in compliance with the December verdict, which based its annulment on the fact the EU had given PMOI no evidence as to why it was put on the register, violating its basic right of appeal.

In the past few weeks, Brussels has sent so-called "statements of reasoning" to all 104 people and groups on its list, including the PMOI, and is waiting to see which of the parties appeal before reviewing who should stay on the register in July.

"The only people that can say a word on the legality of this situation is the court of justice itself," an EU official said, adding that the latest PMOI legal action is "premature" before the comprehensive July review.

The PMOI started out in 1965 as a Marxist-Islamist anti-corruption movement in Iran but fled after suffering purges that saw over 150,000 members slaughtered by the post-cultural revolution Islamic regime.

The Mujahidin organised cross-border raids against Iran from bases in Iraq in the 1990s but says it renounced the use of arms in 2001, with a 2003 US army report saying the Iraq PMOI wing no longer has any guns.

In the past few years PMOI and its sister group, the NRCI, has positioned itself as the democratic opposition in Iran and attracted backers including retired US generals, members of the UK House of Lords, former EU judges and MEPs.

The movement accuses the UK and France of putting it on the EU terrorist register in order to have cards to play in the Iran nuclear diplomacy game.

French diplomats and some Iranian expats in Europe believe it still has a sinister, fanatical fringe, however.

Danish debate

The issue has become a hot topic in the Danish parliament, where opposition MP Svend Auken is taking to task the country's foreign minister, Per Stig Moller, for not briefing the house about Copenhagen's compliance on keeping PMOI on the list.

"The [EU] council chose a very minimalist interpretation of the court's decision," Mr Auken told EUobserver. "The issue is serious and the EU step is not above controversy...I can sympathise with their [the PMOI's] plight."

Mr Auken has drafted a formal rebuke against Mr Moller to be voted on by a parliamentary committee on Friday, with the foreign minister set to answer questions on the topic in parliament before June and with some MPs calling for an "independent judicial review" of future EU terrorist register decisions.